"teen kids news" is on now and here's what we've got. >> whether brushing up on her "grey's anatomy" or overseeing patients in the hospital, or the "private practice," make no bones about it, this doctor is in the house. >> i'll tell you the latest score on the sat. >> it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a car? it's a vehicle that's bridging the gap between the road and sky. >> tune in to see what teens are tuning in for. >> and much more, next on "teen kids news."

>> welcome to "teen kids news," i'm mwanzaa. >> and i'm jessica. here's our top story for this week. >> a few years ago, everyone's favorite test, the sat, was revamped. we added writing in march of 2005 because the writing skills of students entering college were so poor that many students were requiring remedial english classes. in addition, the college board added more reading comprehension to the verbal section. >> and then on the math section, we added some algebra two content to reflect the fact that nearly 97% of the students who take the s.a.t. indicate that they have taken algebra two.

>> the changes made the test longer, and scores lower at first. but the college board says that was just a bump in the road, and scores are now back on track. a bigger change is who's taking the test. >> on the sat over the past 10 years, the real story has been diversity. that we have had a 78% increase in the diversity of students taking the sat over the past 10 years. now if you want to look at the scores, which everybody always wants to look at, it's interesting. what you'll see is that over the past 20, 30 years -- the math scores have been trending up, whereas the reading scores have remained more stable. >> the college board has a theory as to why that may be the case -- >> with the increasing pool of test takers, more diversity, more uh -- more students for whom english is not their first language that could be contributing to why reading scores aren't going up as much. >> and here's one more point -- >> students who take honors courses and ap courses do about three hundred points better on the sat than students who don't. so it really goes to show you that it's to your advantage to take those challenging courses, honors courses, ap courses you will really do a lot better on your sats if you do.

>> the college board says to keep in mind that the sat is just one part of your college application. so don't stress over it! sure. >> we see them all the time but very few of us look closely except for kristen, who has some interesting facts about our state flags. >> oregon's state flag pays tribute to its bountiful landscape and early settlers. ♪ >> in oregon, you have the only flag to include two different images on the front side and on the reverse side. you have a beaver on the reverse side. then on the front, you have the conestoga wagon for the pioneers. >> other images in the heart-shaped center are a sunset, a mountain peak, a forest, a plow, sheaves of wheat and a pick- ax. the 33 stars represent oregon's

place as our thirty third state. but the most interesting elements may be the two ships at sea. one is a british warship, sailing away from shore, while the other is an american merchant ship, arriving. they symbolize the transfer of power from british rule to american independence. above it all, the american eagle protectively spreads its wings. and as randy said, oregon's state animal, the beaver, gets one whole side of the flag to itself! >> no other american animal can make that claim! with flag facts, i'm kristen. >> stay with us. there's a lot more still to come on "teen kids news." >> we'll be right back. congress resuming talks about raising the federal government's debt ceiling. party leaders remain at odds over what sort of conditions

should be attached to a hike in the current $14.3 trillion deficit. republicans are refusing any increase unless it includes deep spending cuts and avoid any tax increases. democrats are trying to minimize cuts to social services and eliminate tax breaks and loopholes benefiting wealthy americans. if the ceiling is not raised by august 2, the country could default on its debt obligation. leon panetta, former head of the cia, is now the united states 23rd defense secretary. panetta stating his top priorities are preserving u.s. military powers, stabilizing afghanistan, and forging a real and lasting partnership with iraq. panetta replaces robert gates who retired after power decades in public service. and a ceremony marking his retirement president obama surprised gates by awarding him the presidential medal of freedom.

prince william and his wife, katheri catherine, continue their tour of canada. the duke and duchess are keeping busy traveling throughout the country and meeting with politicians. military members and hospital patients and even local homeless youth. the royal couple are also finding time for fun with cooking lessons and drag ever dragon boat races. after they wrap up their tour they head to california for three days. >> reporter: we see doctors on medical shows all the time, but is real life like it is on tv? i'm getting the chance to find out! it's shortly after sunrise at long island college hospital in brooklyn, where i'll spend the

day shadowing one of their top doctors. hello, it's nice to meet you. i'm nicole. >> i'm dr. millicent comrie. >> reporter: all right, so let's get started. i followed dr. comrie to where her first patient of the day was waiting. donette frances is a college professor and she's here to have surgery called abdominal myomectomy. >> and this surgery is performed by a gynecologist. so i'm an obstetrician and gynecologist. the obstetrics part -- i deliver babies and the gynecology part -- i'm a surgeon and i take care of female problems also. >> reporter: the doctor is assisted by a whole team of healthcare professionals. so, what do you do? >> i'm doing my residency here, so i'll be helping dr. comrie. >> reporter: a resident is a new doctor who is getting advanced training. before the surgery can begin, the patient needs to sign consent forms stating that she understands the procedure and gives her permission. >> so it's very important for you to explain to the patient what you're going to do, how

long it's going to take, and then we're going to take her in. >> reporter: so approximately how long does the surgery take? >> well this surgery varies, we could have this surgery lasting an hour and a half, 2 hours, or it could be as long as i've been in there 7-8 hours. >> reporter: do you ever get tired standing there for 8 hours at a time? >> well, you have so much energy because i love what i do, when you're at it there's no time to worry about whether you're tired or whether you're hungry or whether you need to go to the bathroom, you just keep going. >> reporter: i was also introduced to dennis. he'll be dr. comrie's main nurse in the operating room. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: my pleasure! >> okay, i'm ready to go. >> reporter: and so was everyone else. forming a small parade, we all walked professor frances to the

operating room. how long is an average day then? >> an average day for me is 12-15 hours. >> reporter: as i later learned, 12 to 15 hours would actually be considered a short day for this doctor. >> this is for the nose. you pinch it up like that. >> reporter: okay -- one size fits all? >> yes. >> reporter: let's go in. >> okay. >> this is our scrub tech. this is sonia. >> hello. >> reporter: morning. >> good morning. i forgot it was morning. >> she is the person who assists me with the surgery, she passes the instruments. >> reporter: that's a lot of instruments. >> right. >> when we scrub and come in then sonia will give us our gown and our gloves. >> as you see that's the team of anesthesiologists, and they're putting the patient to sleep. they give the medication so she has no pain during the procedure.

as you can see the monitors -- we're monitoring the blood pressure all the vital signs of the patient, making sure that as we do our surgery she stays well. >> reporter: and stays asleep. >> absolutely, stays asleep very important. >> reporter: the mask is making my nose itchy. >> while dr. comrie was fixing my mask, nurse dennis asked the doctor for a time out. >> this is miss frances and she's here for a myomectomy. she has no allergies. agreed everybody? >> yes. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> reporter: so doctor what's a timeout in surgery? >> as you know, sometimes, things do happen. you see in the news sometimes doctor operates on the wrong foot or operates on the wrong hand. so we have to put measures in place to prevent accidents so we do what is called a time out,

where we say the patient's name, we say what procedure she is here for, and then we say everybody agree, and we say fine. because you don't want to know that we took ms brown from chair 5 when we needed ms. smith from chair 7. >> reporter: oh, no! so it's a preventive measure to prevent mistakes. before the operation can begin, they need to intubate the patient. that means putting a tube down the trachea so the patient can breathe. >> it's very important that you wait to make sure your patient is fully asleep, that the tube is in the right place, she's comfortable before you go out and scrub. >> reporter: we'll continue to get ready for surgery when teen kids news returns. >> reporter: i'm about to scrub

in for surgery. join me as we examine a day in the life of a doctor. so when did you first realize you wanted to be a doctor? >> when i did some volunteer work at the university of the west indies. because i always wanted to be a teacher, and then as i'm doing the volunteer work, i was so intrigued with the doctors going on rounds, being with patients. that you see patients come in very sick and then they leave very well and then i said, "oh this is so exciting" and i never looked back. >> reporter: this is kind of fun! how did you pick a specialty? >> that's the thing. in the third year of medical school you do what is called your clinical rotation and that is you do a little internal medicine, some obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric, general surgery, psychiatry and as you

go along you form your impressions. is this what i really love? "and you will find that specialty that says "wow" -- where you can't wait to come back the next morning where you can't sleep, you don't want to miss anything! >> reporter: where you don't mind going to bed at 1:00 and waking up at 5:30? >> now you're talking! that's it. once you're sterile, you keep your hands up and then you walk in. >> reporter: what happens if you have to scratch your nose? >> you ask somebody to scratch it. you do. >> reporter: during surgery, the doctor wears two pairs of gloves just in case she accidentally gets cut by one of the instruments. >> so now the patient is draped and we're ready to go. so we have this, we're gong to use for the suctioning. this instrument is a harmonic and we use it to remove the fibroid -- see it has a little hook.

and then this is the bovey that we use if we have any bleeding vessels, then we do that and we cauterize. we can also cut with it. okay, we're ready to go --knife. >> reporter: i guess this is a good time to go to commercial. we'll have more on the day in the life of a doctor when teen/kids news continues. >> donette? donette take it easy. pick your head up. donette pick your head up. lift your head up. >> reporter: how did it go? >> the surgery went very well. >> reporter: that's great. >> everything went very well just as expected. once you're outside you can take off this, but the cap stays on. so now we are off to labor and delivery. hello. hi, miss vinter.

>> nicole, this is miss vinter. she's our unit receptionist. she's been working with long island college hospital a very long time. >> reporter: oh, are these all the babies that have been born here? >> yes. a lot of our babies. >> this is our labor and delivery suite. so you know i switch hats. downstairs i was the gynecologist where i do surgery and deal with female problems, now on this floor i'm an obstetrician, i deliver babies. >> reporter: i followed dr. comrie as she made her morning rounds. first stop, a woman who's in labor, and expected to deliver any minute now. >> good morning. >> reporter: hello. >> hi, this is nicole. >> reporter: nice to meet you, congratulations. >> so this is erica and aaron her husband. and this is a dula who's name is aaron also.

you should say "what is a dula?" a dula is a support person she goes over the birth plan and she is a support person to couple when the couple is in labor. >> reporter: erica told me it was more comfortable leaning on the bed, than lying on it. and that was just fine with dr. comrie, who believes the most important thing is to make the mother-to-be as comfy as possible. so what happens if you're paged in the middle of the night? >> oh, you come in! this is why i told you this is a 24/7 speciality. you have to be ready for it or get out of it or never go into it! but i'm accustomed to this because this is my life. >> let's give them the walk. >> breath.

>> breathe. >> reporter: then dr. comrie let me listen. all right stethoscope -- where do i put it? >> listen to her heart. >> this is the pulmonic valve, isn't it? take a deep breath please. i think you're ready to go home. it was late morning by the time the rounds were finished. so what are you doing? >> writing my notes. >> reporter: on patients? >> yes. >> reporter: doctor comrie doesn't sit for long. it's time to check on our surgery patient in the recovery room. hi, how are you feeling? professor francis was still a little groggy from the anesthesia, but she said she felt okay, just a bit achy. >> but everything is going well? all right i'll see you this evening when i come back down all right? but everything went well. i'll call phillip and let him know everything went well.

all right. >> reporter: next, we're off to the doctor's office to see some patients. dr. comrie has been going non-stop since sunrise, here it is in the late afternoon, and she hasn't even stopped for lunch. >> hello, it's nice to meet you, i'm nicole. so why don't you sit here and i'll sit here. >> my first patient is kemba kemba is 15 years old. this was actually a "well" visit. a chance to meet the doctor. it's also the time to get "the talk." >> so, very, very important to understand your body to know that your body is a very private, private space and you introduce someone in your body only by choice. no one should force you to do anything and you have to be very careful to protect this private body of yours.

>> reporter: so what are you about to do? >> i'm about to examine kemba. i'm going to listen to her heart, her lungs. i'm going to check her blood pressure and i'll teach you how to take her blood pressure. >> all right! let's go. >> reporter: so this goes over the artery like this -- >> yes, and you start to hear "boom, boom, boom." >> reporter: its hard to take it slowly. >> yes with practice you'll let go. okay kemba, everything is fine you're ready to go until we meet again, and you get dressed and if you have any questions you'll meet me back in my office. >> reporter: thank you, stay healthy!

>> look at that pretty smile. >> reporter: do you like what you do? >> love what i do. love, love, love what i do. wouldn't change it for anything in the world. >> reporter: what's your advice for someone my age who is thinking about a career in medicine? >> your biggest thing is first to love it. then you focus, and then you allow nothing to come in your way to stop you from accomplishing your goal and then you're on the money. >> reporter: great advice whatever your career goal. rather than a "day" in the life of a doctor, we should have called this a "week" in the life, since it seems like dr. comrie does a week's work in a single day. and i'd like to thank all the staff at long island college hospital for being so hospitable. it was an extraordinary experience. jessica. >> did the lady deliver the baby?

>> reporter: yes. at 1:00 mafsha.m. dr. comie, who started her day at 5:30 a.m., was there for the delivery. a healthy boy named elijah. >> we will be back aft >> it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a car? actually it's both a car and a plane. this is the "transition roadable aircraft." it's a vehicle that's bridging the gap between the road and the sky. >> we call it a "road-able" aircraft because it's really an airplane that has the capability of folding its wings and driving down the road. it's not the flying car vision that you read about it's not the "jetsons." >> the transition was designed by a group of pilots and it runs on regular gasoline, like the type you put in your car! >> you can keep this thing in your garage like you can keep your suv in your garage, but you can fly though the air at twice the speed of your suv and get twice the gas mileage of your suv.

>> the vehicle can reach 100 miles per hour in the air and can drive at highway speeds on land. it also has special features that make it suitable for driving on the road -- like airbags. >> i want to pull up to someone's driveway and unfold the wings and have an airplane in their driveway and have them wonder how it got there. >> he may have to wait awhile for that. the transition won't be available until 2011. and the cost of the flying machine is almost $200,000! >> there's definitely a lot of james bond appeal. >> indeed! double-o-seven probably would love a ride like this! >> mwanzaa: all right young america, what's your opinion? we'll find out in speak of the week. >> it's prime time and you're in front of the tube, so, what are you watching?

>> favorite tv show is probably "the office," i don't know, i really love steve carrell. >> i think my favorite tv show would definitely be "bones" on fox. i just love the whole tension between booth and bones. >> "glee" because i love how it's like singing and acting, and i love the drama. >> "gossip girl" because it's just awesome, it's really good. >> "gossip girl," because it's so unrealistic, it's impossible. >> "gossip girl," even though i usually wouldn't admit that. >> looks like the "gossip girl" army is strong! xoxo. for "teen kids news" i'm sam. >> that wraps up our show, but we'll be back soon with more teen kids news. >> thanks for joining us, and have a great week! ?u?t?ñ?t?t/÷/